[Open] First day of work

[Kuroth Ziracch]

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Kuroth Ziracch

First day of work

Tag: none Word Count: 290 words OOC: Testing all the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through.

Kuroth places another basket of apples on his trading booth, groaning slightly in the process. He pondered the idea that today was the first day he had spent doing quote unquote honest work ever since he had arrived to the Dorcha Hollow, which was about eight days ago one day after he had landed in the land of mortals. One thing he wondered about from his arrival was, whose idea it was to make him spawn in a metro station when a train was about to arrive. Back to the honest work part. To explain what he meant, the previous days he had mostly just conjured up food and bartered it for other things as he did a little manual labour to get food for himself. Yesterday he had enough money to get the baskets and small coins (for change), he needed to actually set up a booth. So that was what he was doing now to lessen the amount of work he had to do to eat daily. His booth was had a large selection of fruits, mostly of exotic fruits that did not grow normally in this climate without a greenhouse, or well, with magic conjuration and materializations. He also had a couple of sacks of grains he hoped he could sell to a farmer so that the grain could be oven more useful. Although, if people wanted to buy it to get bread, it would be okay as well. The booth itself was just your basic wooden skeleton with some linen atop to cover the wears. Not much about that. With all the things in place he started to do like all the other merchants, and called out: “Fresh food. Fruits, and grains. All fresh and natural.”

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[Venator]

Venator was on his usual patrol through the market district. Alone, of course. The other enforcers would just cause a mess if they tried to stop a theft here, throwing their magic everywhere to show off. Then again, Venator wondered if a town full of mages would make them more or less inclined to show off. Are other magic users ever really that impressed by magic, or would it basically be a way of showing off who has the biggest magic in town. Venator recalled one of the enforcers who would have tried to make that a sex joke. Venator also recalled fondly how he had broken that enforcer's nose for goofing off the last time he had done something like that. Being the feared Mage Killer, there was no attempt at retribution. Sometimes having the people be afraid of you had its perks.

Venator noticed a new booth had opened up. His first instinct was to guess if the vendor was licensed, but he wasn't sure if the mages actually cared about that sort of thing. Such fickle people. What was he selling? Fresh and natural fruits and grains. Oh yes, natural foods sold by a mage. That was totally believable. Half of the vendors admitted to using magic and the other half didn't say one way or another, but this guy seemed determined to let everyone know that he sold "natural" fruits and grains. Was it an underhanded business ploy, or something more diabolical? Then again, he could have been telling the truth, but decades of despising mages made it hard for Venator to give this guy the benefit of the doubt. People moved away to further vendors as Venator approached the stand.

"Natural fruits and grains, huh?" Venator said with no attempt to hide his derision. "So tell me, how much do 'natural' fruits and grains go for?"

[Daja]

When Daja was home, in her boring little boarder town she'd rarely have a day off. If she wasn't working in the forge, she'd be off chatting up Imperial soldiers and bragging about her wares. Had to get the name out there after all. It didn't help that she was rather proud of her pieces. One did not simply forge a beautiful sword out of raw materials and not get a little attached to it.

Still there was very little for her to do in the Hollow. Most of the folks interested in buying fancy swords already had one, and weren't willing to donate rare materials for a novice mage (in her thirties) to experiment and maybe come up with something good. On the bright side, it did give her a lot of time to shop. And haggle. Gods did she love haggling.

Of course, her love of haggling, did not dissuade her from following a few steps behind Venator. She did not know the man personally, but had seen him patrolling around the Hollow often. More so, he appeared to be the leader of this new town guard. They seemed like they would be most interested in purchasing new weapons in the Hollow. Therefore, Daja had to get in good with them. Or at least impress upon them the quality of her weapons.

Not that she had any weapons on hand to display. Today was her off-day, and she'd dressed down, and only interested in a recon mission. She side-stepped around the large man, glancing appreciatively at his bastard sword and shield--as well as any trophies he'd brought along. Slightly less interesting to her was his armor, though you could never amass that much iron in one place and not attract Daja's attention. Fortunately, Venator seemed more interested in speaking to the vendor than squish the blacksmith currently ogling his bastard sword.

Speaking off which... Daja's eyes lit up. Natural or not, this vendor definitely had a very large selection. Including some products that the smith had not seen since she left her desert home. Her excitement did not last long, as a cool, neutral expression settled on her features. Haggling mood engaged.

She gave Kuroth a lazy once over. "Yes," she nodded to Venator's comment. She didn't really agree with the sentiment behind it (and was quite beguiled with magically grown fruits as it was), but she'd pretend to agree with a lot of things if it meant she could barter them down. "Tell me, how much are your 'all natural' dates?"

Gods, she hadn't had dates in forever. Or figs. Or pomegranates--if her eyes did not deceive her. Kuroth hadn't even spoken ten words, and he was already her favorite vendor in the market (okay, okay. That guy who matured the fruit right in front of you was pretty cool, but Daja was a very line of sight kind of girl).

[Kuroth Ziracch]

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Kuroth Ziracch

First day of work

Tag: Daja Venator Word Count: 333 words OOC: Testing all the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through.

So his first costumer, or at least the first person to check out his wares, was a spoil sport of a man who had to...Well not test them, but insult his claims with a scorn. Kinda topical of a man that looked like a golem or automaton. It made him wonder how hot it could get under that suit of mail. But he did have a point in so far that this place didn't have an official currency, or notes of credit. He couldn't think too much about this though because as soon as he asked a dark skinned woman with short hair appeared. She also had some nicely placed, motherly fat. But seeing the bit of age she had on and the muscles she had on her, he figured that wasn't her highest priority in life. That was something he could understand and even respect even though one of his influences were people (but mostly young men), preparing or trying to get married. “How much for a date?” He looked at the woman with a smile, “Well, it's the first time I have been asked for a date rather than my wares, but I'd be happy to go with a lady such as you for a day or two,”but even if he could respect that, it still didn't mean he wouldn't flirt with her. He followed up his flirting statement with a gentle smile to address the both of them, “But on a more serious note, as you might have noticed there isn't an official currency in this community, so it depends a lot on what I need and what people can pay with.” He tabbed his fingers on the table in front of him. “In general however, I accept metals, rolls of refined cloth, and silver and gold coins minted in the outside world. I can't have an alchemist fill my coffers with gold made from lead.” He laughed at the last part of his statement.

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[Venator]

Venator now knew that today was going to be one of those days. One of those days that made him specifically request forest patrol the next day so he had an excuse to go to that big tree and rip the wings off of a Ropalo and beat it to death with one of his more blunt trophies. Yeah, one of those days. He didn't quite know how to take the woman who seemed to have some sort of bizarre interest in his weapons. It certainly didn't look like fear or guilt, so she wasn't the usual unfortunate kind of person who would gape at his weaponry; not the kind who was contemplating how much it was going to hurt when the sword and person became better acquainted. No, there seemed to be a more positive emotion behind this interest, which was unusual enough to bug the hell out of Venator.

Oh and this shopkeeper was now flirting with the girl. He must think himself some clever sort of bastard. But he didn't seem to be breaking any laws, so Venator was still lacking an excuse to break that cocky smile. He wasn't quite sure what it was about Kuroth that rubbed him the wrong way, though it was most likely due to Venator being completely unused to mages not regarding him with fear. Because of this, Kuroth might have been trying to be pleasant, but Venator could only interpret it as arrogance. Maybe he should do something to shock the vender. That should put him in line.

Venator reached into his collection of trophies, pulling out a blackened steel dagger. He stuck it into the top of the stand, though not deep enough to do serious property damage. "Good quality blade. It belonged to Zalthon the Necromancer. Don't worry, he died before he got to sacrificing any kids, so no cursed history behind it. Magically inert, but if you heard of the guy, it's quite the collector's piece. Or you could melt it down for something else, if you don't care. This for a basket of your best fruits." He released his grip from the hilt of the dagger, letting it stand on its own. "Does that sound sufficient?"

[Daja]

If Venator's day was bad, it was about to get a whole lot worse.

Daja blinked, her hard, bargining face disappearing when she realized that Kuroth was flirting with her. She gave him a once over. Tall (very tall), muscular, rich looking. Daja's eyes slid over to Venator. She was supposed to be impressing him, or at least instilling confidence in her abilities. Besides, Venator looked very displeased already (maybe, it was hard to tell with him), nipping it in the bud might earn her some brownie points.

Still, her love of harmless flirting won out. She leaned forward on the stall, grinning broadly. "Well, then, orange you glad I asked?" Did we say flirting? Looks like it was more like bad puns rather than flirting. "Still, maybe you could give me some thyme, I don't want to raddish into anything."

Oooh, that last one might be physically painful for anyone listening.

The hurricane of puns momentarily came to a halt when Venator reached into his back of trophies. She watched as he drew out a dagger. Oh, that was a nice dagger. Too nice to have belonged to anyone seriously named Zalthon the Necromancer. She wanted to reach out and touch it, maybe try to speak with the metal. Daja restrained herself however, she'd already flirted with a stranger in front of Venator--no need to look like a complete lunatic (at least, not before he realized what a master-craft's person she was, and commissioned work for all of his guards). Still, she couldn't resist giving Kuroth one bit of advice. "It is an a-pear-antly good blade, if your fruit is up to the cut, that is." Wow. A fruit and a knife pun in one go. Daja was on a roll. That is if you had a strange definition of what a roll was.

Still, it did raise the question of what Daja had to barter. She leaned back, rubbing her chin. "It might be inert now, but there's no reason it had to say inert." She grinning and gestured vaguely with her hands "For the right price, of course." She didn't have a lot of materials, but if she could get her hands on something quick, she could whip up something interesting to say the least. Daja looked back up at the man. Still, she wasn't quite sure if he'd be interested in a magic dagger. "Egg-suming your interested in the dagger in the first place."

Or that her puns hadn't severely wounded him.

[Kuroth Ziracch]

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Kuroth Ziracch

First day of work

Tag: Daja Venator Word Count: 187 words OOC: Testing all the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through. the way through.

Kuroth looked the blade over and smiled. It was indeed of good quality and it did not have any evil aura ™ casts over it for all he could feel as a mage. Well, he did need a proper blade while he was here, and many people would tell you that a kitchen knife can only get you so far in life. “I happen to need a lethal dagger, so I'll call that a deal, sir” he ignored the woman's puns for now as he got the wares the man wanted and handed it over with a “here you go. Then took the dagger out of the desk and put it into a desk below where a more proactive merchant might have kept their Betty. Turning towards the woman he smiled. “Be careful, miss. His man looks prone to deal out PUNishment, so I would not be to punny around him with such tickling words of wit. So what did you want to pay for those dates, miss?” With a smile he jested a suggestion to her, “Perhaps an actual date and your name?”

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[Venator]

The man seemed rather unfazed by Venator's method of payment. In fact, it seemed to be something he wanted. That was fine, Venator had wanted to get rid of that dagger for a while. Ugly guy in its history. Now it could be used for whatever this guy was into. He seemed like he had been waiting for an opportunity for a "lethal" weapon, so now Venator had an excuse to keep an eye on him. But he didn't want to stick around currently. These puns were dreadfully unpalatable.

"I'll let you two handle any further business then. I have to check on the guy across the way. Prankster thinks its funny to sneak sleep spells into his wares. I need to make sure he's cleaned up his act."

Venator took an apple out of the basket, leaving the rest behind as he crossed the road to a vendor who seemed to have a black eye, a broken nose, and was slightly hunched over. Said man became pale and cowered as Venator approached, stuttering something about how he swears that he had gone clean. Venator dropped his apple on the vendor's stand and snatched one of his pears.

"We'll see about that."

Venator analyzed the pear for a moment when he had an idea. He returned to Kuroth's stand and placed the pear on the table.

"At the risk of ending up asleep, would one of you like to sample one of Carlo's pears?" He then tapped the basket he had just bought. "You will be compensated for the day if it induces sleep. I would try it myself, but if he's still up to his games...I'll have to be awake to follow up a promise."

[Daja]

Shrugging slightly, Daja gave a small wave to Venator, as the other man stalked across the street. She did not envy Carlo. Who ever he was.

She turned back to Kuroth when he spoke. A big lazy grin was plastered on her face. She reached a hand out to the vendor. "Daja Algierz. Blacksmith par excellence." Admittedly, that last bit was for Venator, just in case he was still listening. "Can I have your name too, or do I have to wait until our date?"

Daja eyed Venator strangely when he returned, trying to understand what was going threw his strange, metal encased head. She glanced around the big man to look at this 'Carlo'. Well, he did certainly look guilty, or at least nervous that the scary man was checking out his fruit. She couldn't really blame him either way.

Her eyes darted back to Venator. She didn't know about Kuroth, but she wasn't very interested in eating maybe poisoned fruit, even if there was a compensation involved. After all, who knew if it was still just a sleep spell. Maybe he'd escalated to itching spells or sudden gastronomical evacuation spells. That was definitely not something that Daja wanted to put in her mouth.

She jabbed a finger back at Carlos. "Why not just make him eat it? If he eats it and is fine, great. If he eats it and falls asleep, great. If he refuses to eat it," she shrugged, "then it's probably been tampered with." She coughed slightly, trying to ignore the violence implicated in Venator keeping his promises.

[Venator]

Venator looked at Daja very carefully. He was here to harass the new vendor, but this blacksmith seemed interesting. Give Carlo a taste of his own medicine? That was exactly Venator's style. It had won him many battles in the past, and a lying, cheating, prankster of a vendor should be just as susceptible. But now was the time for his masterstroke. Time to show this blacksmith and new vendor how he ran this town.

"I would make his eat his own fruit," Venator announced in a louder voice than usual. He glanced across and saw Carlo taking a bite out of Kuroth's apple. "Which is why I took an apple from Carlo's stash this morning and switched it out with the one in the basket I just bought from you."

Carlo turned pale, throwing aside the apple and trying to spit out what was in his mouth. The stupid bastard fell for the bluff.

"What a reaction," Venator said, walking towards Carlo and drawing his sword. "I wonder what the new spell is?"

Carlo began to run. He ran as fast as his legs could take him, but he could never be fast enough.

"Dark Lunge!"

A dark aura surrounded Venator as his body propelled towards Carlo. Carlo tried to dodge to the side to avoid the sword, but attacking with a blade in a crowded area was something Venator was not so keen on doing. Which is why he brought up his shield just in time to collide with Carlo's face.

Between the collision and Carlo being flung against the street, there were at least a few unpleasant sounds that implied Carlo would not be engaging in strenuous activity for a while. Not caring. Venator walked up to the man now in fetal position and lifted him by the collar.

"What's the spell?! Who have you sold to?! ANSWER!"

Venator's gauntlet met Carlo's jaw, knocking a few teeth out.

"ANSWER ME!"

However, Venator's interrogation techniques were proving fruitless (ba-dum-tsss). Without intervention, this scene would have a very ugly end with few results.